历年大学英语四级阅读理解真题集锦

历年大学英语四级阅读理解真题集锦由英语网为大家精心整理，希望对广大考生们有多帮助。祝广大考生取得佳绩。 大学英语四级阅读理解真题：2013年12月考试真题
You never see them, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you're going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to the Comoros Islands in the Indian Ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first model for a black box, which became a requirement on all US commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane—the area least subject to impact—from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). That same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations,and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2 000°F. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20 000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1, 2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
57. What does the author say about the black box?
A) It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane.
B) The idea for its design comes from a comic book.
C) Its ability to ward off disasters is incredible.
D) It is an indispensable device on an airplane.
58. What information could be found from the black box on the Yemeni airliner?
A) Data for analyzing the cause of the crash.
B) The total number of passengers on board.
C) The scene of the crash and extent of the damage.
D) Homing signals sent by the pilot before the crash.
59. Why was the black box redesigned in 1965?
A) New materials became available by that time.
B) Too much space was needed for its installation.
C) The early models often got damaged in the crash.
D) The early models didn't provide the needed data.
60. Why did the Federal Aviation Authority require the black boxes be painted orange or yellow?
A) To distinguish them from the color of the plane.
B) To caution people to handle them with care.
C) To make them easily identifiable.
D) To conform to international standards.
61. What do we know about the black boxes from Air France Flight 447?
A) There is still a good chance of their being recovered.
B) There is an urgent need for them to be restructured.
C) They have stopped sending homing signals.
D) They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil. 大学英语四级阅读理解真题：2012年12月考试真题
As you are probably aware, the latest job markets news isn’t good: Unemployment is still more than 9 percent, and new job growth has fallen close to zero. That’s bad for the economy, of course. And it may be especially discouraging if you happen to be looking for a job or hoping to change careers right now. But it actually shouldn’t matter to you nearly as much as you think.
That’s because job growth numbers don’t matter to job hunters as much as job turnover data. After all, existing jobs open up every day due to promotions, resignations, terminations, and retirements. (Yes, people are retiring even in this economy.) In both good times and bad, turnover creates more openings than economic growth does. Even in June of 2007, when the economy was still humming along, job growth was only 132,000, while turnover was 4.7 million!
And as it turns out, even today — with job growth near zero — over 4 million job hunters are being hired every month.
I don’t mean to imply that overall job growth doesn’t have an impact on one’s ability to land a job. It’s true that if total employment were higher, it would mean more jobs for all of us to choose from (and compete for). And it’s true that there are currently more people applying for each available job opening, regardless of whether it’s a new one or not.
But what often distinguishes those who land jobs from those who don’t is their ability to stay motivated. They’re willing to do the hard work of identifying their valuable skills; be creative about where and how to look; learn how to present themselves to potential employers; and keep going, even after repeated rejections. The Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that 2.7 million people who wanted and were available for work hadn’t looked within the last four weeks and were no longer even classified as unemployed.
So don’t let the headlines fool you into giving up. Four million people get hired every month in the U.S. You can be one of them.
57. The author tends to believe that high unemployment rate ______?
A) deprives many people of job opportunities.
B) prevents many people from changing careers.
C) should not stop people from looking for a job.
D) does not mean the U.S. economy is worsening.
58. Where do most job openings come from?
A) Job growth
B) Job turnover
C) Improved economy
D) Business expansion
59. What does the author say about overall job growth?
A) It doesn’t have much effect on individual job seekers.
B) It increases people’s confidence in the economy.
C) It gives a ray of hope to the unemployed.
D) It doesn’t mean greater job security for the employed.
60. What is the key to landing a job according to the author?
A) Education
B) Intelligence
C) Persistence
D) Experience
61. What do we learn from the passage about the unemployment figures in the US?
A) They clearly indicate how healthy the economy is.
B) They provide the public with the latest information.
C) They warn of the structural problems in the economy.
D) They exclude those who have stopped looking for a job. 大学英语四级阅读理解真题：2011年12月考试真题
Boys' schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and are more likely to get involved in activities such as art, dance and music, according to research released today.
Far from the traditional image of a culture of aggressive masculinity in which students either sink or swim, the absence of girls gives boys the chance to develop without pressure to conform to a stereotype, the US study says.
Boys at single sex schools were said to be more likely to get involved in cultural and artistic activities that helped develop their emotional expressiveness, rather than feeling they had to conform to the "boy code" of hiding their emotions to be a "real man".
The findings of the study go against received wisdom that boys do better when taught alongside girls.
Tony Little, headmaster of Eton, warned that boys were being failed by the British education system because it had become too focused on girls. He criticized teachers for failing to recognize that boys are actually more emotional than girls.
The research argued that boys often perform badly in mixed schools because they become discouraged when their female peers do better earlier in speaking and reading skills.
But in single-sex schools teachers can tailor lessons to boys' learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study's author, Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.
Teachers could encourage boys to enjoy reading and writing with specifically "boy-focused" approaches such as themes and characters that appeal to them. Because boys generally have more acute vision, learn best through touch, and are physically more active, they need to be given "hands-on" lessons where they are allowed to walk around. "Boys in mixed schools view classical music as feminine and prefer the modern genre in which violence and sexism are major themes," James wrote.
Single-sex education also made it less likely that boys would feel they had to conform to a stereotype that men should be "masterful and in charge" in relationships. "In mixed schools, boys feel compelled to act like men before they understand themselves well enough to know what that means," the study reported.
57. The author believes that a single-sex school would ________.
A force boys to hide their emotions to be “real man”
B help to cultivate masculine aggressiveness in boys
C encourage boys to express their emotions more freely
D naturally reinforce in boys that traditional image of a man
58. It is commonly believed that in a mixed schools boys ________.
A perform relatively better
B grow up more healthily
C behave more responsibly
D receive a better education
59. What does Tony Little say about the British education system?
A It fails more boys than girls academically
B It focuses more on mixed school education
C It fails to give boys the attention they need
D It places more pressure on boys than on girls
60. According to Abigail James, one of the advantages of single-sex schools is ________.
A teaching can be tailored to suit the characteristics of boys
B boys can focus on their lessons without being distracted
C boys can choose to learn whatever they are interested in
D teaching can be designed to promote boys’ team spirit
61. Which of the following is characteristic of boys according to Abigail James’ report?
A They enjoy being in charge
B They conform to stereotypes
C They have sharper vision
D They are violent and sexist 大学英语四级阅读理解真题：2011年6月考试真题
Several recent studies have found that being randomly (随机地) assigned to a roommate of another race can lead to increased tolerance but also to a greater likelihood (可能性) of conflict.
Recent reports found that lodging with a student of a different race may decrease prejudice and compel students to engage in more ethnically diverse friendships.
An Ohio State University study also found that black students living with a white roommate saw higher academic success throughout their college careers. Researchers believe this may be caused by social pressure.
In a New York Times article, Sam Boakye – the only black student on his freshman year floor -said that "if you're surrounded by whites, you have something to prove."
Researchers also observed problems resulting from pairing interracial students in residences. According to two recent studies, randomly assigned roommates of different races are more likely to experience conflicts so strained that one roommate will move out.
An Indiana University study found that interracial roommates were three times as likely as two white roommates to no longer live together by the end of the semester.
Grace Kao, a professor at Penn said she was not surprised by the findings. "This may be the first time that some of these students have interacted, and lived, with someone of a different race," she said.
At Penn, students are not asked to indicate race when applying for housing.
"One of the great things about freshman housing is that, with some exceptions, the process throws you together randomly," said Undergraduate Assembly chairman Alec Webley. "This is the definition of integration."
"I've experienced roommate conflicts between interracial students that have both broken down stereotypes and reinforced stereotypes," said one Penn resident advisor (RA). The RA of two years added that while some conflicts "provided more multicultural acceptance and melding (融合)," there were also "jarring cultural confrontations."
The RA said that these conflicts have also occurred among roommates of the same race. Kao said she cautions against forming any generalizations based on any one of the studies, noting that more background characteristics of the students need to be studied and explained.
57. What can we learn from some recent studies?
A) Conflicts between students of different races are unavoidable.
B) Students of different races are prejudiced against each other.
C) Interracial lodging does more harm than good.
D) Interracial lodging may have diverse outcomes.
58. What does Sam Boakye's remark mean?
A) White students tend to look down upon their black peers.
B) Black students can compete with their white peers academically.
C) Black students feel somewhat embarrassed among white peers during the freshman year.
D) Being surrounded by white peers motivates a black student to work harder to succeed.
59. What does the Indiana University study show?
A) Interracial roommates are more likely to fall out.
B) Few white students like sharing a room with a black peer.
C) Roommates of different races just don't get along.
D) Assigning students' lodging randomly is not a good policy.
60. What does Alec Webley consider to be the "definition of integration"?
A) Students of different races are required to share a room.
B) Interracial lodging is arranged by the school for freshmen.
C) Lodging is assigned to students of different races without exception.
D) The school randomly assigns roommates without regard to race.
61. What does Grace Kao say about interracial lodging?
A) It is unscientific to make generalizations about it without further study.
B) Schools should be cautious when making decisions about student lodging.
C) Students' racial background should be considered before lodging is assigned.
D) Experienced resident advisors should be assigned to handle the problems.